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<title>Day 26: "With All Due Respect" (don't act like you're alone) by chiralchaos</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27215968">Day 26: "With All Due Respect" (don't act like you're alone)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiralchaos/pseuds/chiralchaos'>chiralchaos</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Turkstober 2020 [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen, Injury, Planet Scar Syndrome | Geostigma, Tseng you're not a failure, Turkstober (Compilation of FFVII), someone please tell him</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:34:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>827</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27215968</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiralchaos/pseuds/chiralchaos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p><i>The creature bore down on him heavily, a clawed foot sinking into the side of his knee to pin him in place with an audible crunch. He brought his arms up to defend himself from the sharp and yellowed teeth that gnashed at his face, and while half of him thought frantically </i>“Take out its eyes! Go for the throat!”<i>, the louder half thought </i>“Of course this is how it happens.”</p>
  <p>Tseng is caught off guard, and Rude speaks some solid truths.</p>
</div>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rufus Shinra/Tseng (implied)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Turkstober 2020 [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965964</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Turkstober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 26: "With All Due Respect" (don't act like you're alone)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A valron, a fucking valron, how did he not see a flying fucking VALRON coming at him until it was too late? The men he had been tracking originally had been no problem, even when their backup arrived, and their dead bodies on the ground served as testament to the fact that he was more than capable of handling himself out in the field. He simply hadn’t been prepared for an aerial attack though, and the unexpected impact of claws and muscle took him off his feet, breath driven from him body in an instant. He landed face down, gun knocked out of his hand, but managed to twist himself to face his assailant. The creature bore down on him heavily, a clawed foot sinking into the side of his knee to pin him in place with an audible crunch. He brought his arms up to defend himself from the sharp and yellowed teeth that gnashed at his face, and while half of him thought frantically <i>“Take out its eyes! Go for the throat!”</i>, the louder half thought <i>“Of course this is how it happens.”</i></p>
<p>
  <i>Of course.</i>
</p>
<p>He knew he wasn’t fighting with all he had. All he had wasn’t <i>here</i> anymore, and the cynical inner monologue that had grown in the last six months was overpowering now. All he had was …</p>
<p>“<i>Boss!!</i>”</p>
<p>He barely registers the voice before a loud gunshot cracks through the air, and the weight of the monster as it collapses on his chest is almost suffocating. He lies there for a second longer, adrenaline surging, heart racing, before he rolls out from under the dead weight.</p>
<p>“I HAD that …” he grinds out from between gritted teeth.</p>
<p>“With all due respect, chief,” Rude says, pushing his shades up, “No you didn’t.”</p>
<p>He lowers his gun, barrel still smoking, and reaches forward to help Tseng up. The offered hand is batted away angrily. He only raises his eyebrows in response, and watches as his boss tries to make his way to his feet. It’s a painful spectacle, and he can see the other man lean all his weight on one side.</p>
<p>“I <i>DID</i>,” Tseng growls, but the moment he moves to walk away his injured leg buckles under him. To his credit he successfully stifles a shout of pain and catches himself on outstretched hands, but once he hits the ground he stays there.</p>
<p>“You didn’t have to come out alone again,”</p>
<p>Tseng doesn’t want to hear it. He is angry that he was caught off guard, knocked off his feet, taken to the ground by a monster he never even saw coming. He is angry that Rude came for him, that he even felt the <i>need</i> to, that he is here at all. He is angry that he isn’t fast enough, isn’t strong enough, isn’t GOOD enough to have found an answer yet, a fix, a solution, a cure.</p>
<p>Because Rufus is getting sicker, and Tseng</p>
<p>Isn’t</p>
<p>Enough.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Go be with him.”</p>
<p>There is so much comforting familiarity in Rude’s voice that Tseng’s anger nearly gives way to something much more vulnerable, and here, on his hands and knees under the open sky, he can‘t allow that. He curls his hands into fists in the dirt instead, but can’t make himself answer.</p>
<p>“You’re getting sloppy,” Rude continues, delivering some frank truth that Tseng knows he needs to hear. “The bandits last week. The fall before that. The malboro …”</p>
<p>(Tseng’s head still isn’t right from that one)</p>
<p>“There has to be something …” Tseng murmurs from where he is still knelt, “There has to be something to make them all better. We can find it …”</p>
<p>“Damn straight,” Rude cleans his shades as he speaks, all the while keeping an eye out so they aren’t ambushed again. “<i>WE</i> can,” he says, “Not just you.”</p>
<p>He holds his hand out again, beckons this time. He can see the hesitation in Tseng’s eyes, all over his face, but he keeps his hand held out nonetheless. With a low sigh Tseng nods to himself, and reluctantly accepts it. Rude pulls him upright, readjusting quickly to accommodate the other man’s injury, letting Tseng sling his arm over his shoulder and cling tightly to his suit. There’s a lot he doesn’t say with words, speaking instead with the tightness of his grip, and Rude nods like he has said it all out loud.</p>
<p>“We’ll get you back, you rest, then you head to Healen,” he says with that low voice, "Go be with him. Just for a while." Tseng’s grip loosens a moment then re-tightens when they begin to move, limping obviously, leaning against Rude heavily. “We’ll hold the fort here, keep our ears to the ground, you know.” Tseng nods. “And for the love of god, chief, stop running stupid missions by yourself.” He holsters his gun to better support Tseng, and they head back to the path at a snail’s pace. “At least take Elena with you next time.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Written for Tursktober Day 26, "With all due respect". I let the melodrama run away this time. I swear the Turks DO have fun sometimes, just not when I've got anything to say about it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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